Greening Mua Environmental Initiative (GMEI) is a Community Based Organization that is rolling out climate action initiatives in Mua Location, Machakos County, Kenya. Started in 2019 and registered in 2020, the initiative is gaining momentum and receiving a lot of support from different government agencies.
The initiative aims to tackle 9 out of the17 SDGs. These are;
• SDG1 No poverty
• SDG2 Zero hunger
• SDG3 Good health and Wellbeing
• SDG5 Gender equality
• SDG6 Clean water and sanitation`
• SDG7 Affordable clean energy
• SDG8 Decent work and economic growth
• SDG13 Climate Action
• SDG17 Partnering initiatives for sustainable development
To work towards climate change and environmental conservation
Provide tree seedlings, nurseries and planting
Work towards alternative energy provision, water harvesting and improving community members lives
Support Self Help Groups and youth-led groups to improve their economic wellbeing through engaging in agribusiness and agroforestry
Collaborate and partnership with individuals, groups and organizations with similar objectives
Assist communities to implement projects designed to improve community wellbeing
Situated about 50 Kms east of Nairobi, Mua Hills is a crescent-shaped mountain with an elevation of about 2,000 meters above sea level. Mua Hills comprises about 130 square Kilometers and has at least 12,000 Hectares that was previously devoted to commercial fruit farming (plums, oranges, pears and apples) and timber by white farmers from the beginning of the 20th century. Since independence, in 1963, Mua hills has been occupied by indigenous people who have subdivided the land, cut most of the big trees and exposed the formerly pristine property to the vagaries of weather though destructive farming practices. Some evidence of past glory is some trenches and terraces dug by the pre-independence government as well as some lonely gigantic blue gums and cypress trees.
The government of Kenya launched the ‘Greening Kenya Campaign’ in 2018, which focuses on growing trees in schools, universities, education centers, farmlands and dryland. The initiative is part of Kenya’s aim to plant 1.8 billion trees and achieve more than 10% forest cover in the country by 2022. “Planting a tree is continuing a battle against the global challenge of climate change. Kenya lives up to the aspirations of its citizens to uphold a bond of unity between the forests and the people,” said Jorge Laguna-Celis UN Environment Director of Governance Affairs“ during the launch of Green Kenya Campaign.
The role of forests in climate change mitigation cannot be gainsaid considering the benefits to local communities, the connection between forestry and climate change is critical to forest dependent communities who continually adapt new conditions caused by the phenomenon to derive their livelihoods. Rains are no longer predictable as they used to be, that is why rivers are drying up.
With the greening Kenya Initiative gaining momentum, Mua Hills cannot be left behind since it is one of the productive hills in Machakos County yet with the climate change, its level of productivity is declining. Water sources have dried up and the ecosystem affected.
It takes Kenya Forest Service about one year to rehabilitate 5,000 hectares making it impossible for the government to achieve rehabilitation of forest reserves alone. Communities, individuals, institutions need to join hands with the governments to ensure that the target of planting 1.8 billion trees is achieved. GMEI’s target is to plant 1 million trees by 2021 and help the communities to grow the trees.
GMEI has successfully used a unique community-led approach which has recorded a high success rate towards the realization of the Climate Action SDG 13 which calls for “taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”. In its Climate Action interventions, GMEI works with and through existing community structures such as:
(i) Self Help Groups, (ii) Welfare Associations, (iii) Individuals with large pieces of land, (iv) Schools (v) Faith Based Organizations.
GMEI sources the tree seedlings from the State Department of Correctional Services, avails to these groups and encourages the community to plant the tree seedlings in their land to re-habilitate the (Mua) hill which has experienced the adverse effects of deforestation. This approach is referred to as “The Mua Local Climate Action Model (MLCAM)”. This is an integrated approach that aims at conserving, restoring and protecting the gains of the initiatives. MLCAM ultimate goal is to establish “Model rural homes”
World Environment Day 2021 Theme:
ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION
Mua, Kaseve
Machakos, Kenya.
Email: info@gmei-env.org